Fasteners for attaching cloth to ribs of umbrellas

ABSTRACT

A fastener for attaching the cloth to the ribs of an umbrella made of deformable material and comprising a neck, a transverse rod integrally connected to one end of the neck and being twistable to align with the neck for piercing the cloth, and an anchor having an opening for receiving the rib and connected to the other end of the neck.

United States Patent Kawano [54] FASTENERS FOR ATTACHING CLOTH TO RIBSOF UMBRELLAS [72] Inventor:

[73] Assignee: Moon Bat Kabushiki Kaisha, Kyoto,

Japan 22 Filed: Sept. 28, 1970 21 Appl.No.: 75,935

Takuo Kawano, Kyoto, Japan [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec.26, 1969 Japan ..45/1550 [52] US. Cl ..24/73 PF, 24/150 FP [51] Int. Cl...A44b 21/00 [58] Field of Search...135/34; 24/16 PB, 150 FP, 102 IA,24/30.5 PB, 73 CF, 73 PF, 208 A [56] References Cited UNITED STATESPATENTS 1,693,536 11/1928 Woodley ..135/34 51 Aug. 1,1972

1,945,932 Caley ..24/16 PB UX 2,087,756 7/1937 Farkas ..135/34 3,110,64711/1963 Tong ..24/16 PB x 3,399,432 9/1968 Merser ..24/ 150 PP UXFOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 701,336 1/1965 Canada ..24/150 FPPrimary Examiner-Donald A. Griffin Attorney-George B. Oujevolk [5 7]ABSTRACT A fastener for attaching the cloth to the ribs of an umbrellamade of deformable material and comprising a neck, a transverse rodintegrally connected to one end of the neck and being twistable to alignwith the neck for piercing the cloth, and an anchor having an openingfor receiving the rib and connected to the other end of the neck.

1 Claim, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEDAus" 1 I872 SHEEI 1 OF 2 FIG.3 I

INVENTOR.

BY Geo/fie Ba /f PATENTEDAUB 1 @972 3,680,178

sum 3 or 2 I NVENTOR.

FASTENERS FOR ATTACHING CLOTH TO RIBS OF UMBRELLAS BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION This invention relates to a novel fastener for attaching thecloth of an umbrella to ribs.

To securely attach the cloth of the umbrella to its ribs it has been thepractice to sew the seams between elongated triangular pieces of thecloth to the ribs, but this method of sewing requires much labor and inaddition, the sewing threads tend to break. Moreover, to remove thecloth it is necessary to cut the sewing threads.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of this invention to provide anovel fastener which can readily and quickly attach the cloth to theribs of the umbrella without using any sewing operation.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel fastener which ismore durable than the ordinary sewing threads.

The fastener embodying this invention comprises a neck, a transverse rodintegrally connected to one end of the neck, said transverse rod beingtwistable to substantially align with the neck for piercing the cloth ofthe umbrella and an anchor having an opening for receiving the rib andconnected to the other end of said neck.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention can be more fullyunderstood from the following detailed description taken in injunctionwith the accompanying drawing in which;

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a fastener embodying this invention;

FIG. 2 shows the fastener shown in FIG. 1 when it is used to attach aseam between pieces of the cloth to a rib;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a modified fastener;

FIG. 4 shows a manner of attaching a seam between pieces of cloth to arib by using the fastener shown in FIG. 3 and FIGS. 5 FIGS. 6 are frontviews of still other modifications of this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The fastener of this inventionis made of plastics, soft metals or other readily deformable material.The embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises a vertical neck 1, ahorizontal rod 2 with at least one end pointed and a ring shaped anchor4 connected to the lower end of the neck I and provided with anelongated slot 3 adapted to receive a rib of the umbrella. Thetransverse width of a shoulder 5 is wider than the diameter of neck 1.Of course component parts 1, 2 and 4 are made as an internal piece.

To attach the cloth to a rib, first the rib A is inserted through slot 3of the anchor 4, then after bending horizontal rod 2 into alignment withneck 1, the pointed end of rod 2 is pierced through the seam B betweenpieces of umbrella cloth. Thereafter the horizontal rod 2 is twistedback to the original position or to the d'rection of the sgam. Ofcourse, a suitable number of asteners are use at predetermined spacingto attach one seam to one rib.

In the modified embodiment shown in FIG. 3, an additional horizontalanchor 6 shorter than rod 2 is provided at the lower end of rod 1 ofsquare cross-section. In this case a longitudinal slit 3a is formed overa substantial length of the rod 1. When the material of rod 2 on theopposite sides of slit 3a is spread apart an opening similar to slot 3in FIG. 1 is formed. Then the fastener can be used to attach the clothto the rib as shown in FIG. 4 in the same manner as has been describedin connection with FIG. 2.

In the construction shown in Fig. 5, the anchor 4 is constructed as acircular annulus while in another modification shown in FIG. 6 neck 1and anchor 4 are made as independent members. More particularly, neck 1is inserted through an opening 8 in the anchor and is provided with atriangular head 7 at its lower end which prevents removal of the neck.

Thus this invention provides a novel fastener which can readily attachthe cloth to the rib of a umbrella without a sewing operation. Piercingoperation of the horizontal rod may be performed with a suitable tool.Moreover, the fastener made of metal or plastics is more durable than asewing thread and permits easy removal of the cloth from the rib.

What is claimed is:

l. A fastener for attaching cloth to the rib of an umbrella comprising:

a. a neck;

b. a first transverse rod (2) with at least one pointed end, integrallyconnected to one end of said neck, said first transverse rod beingtwistable substantially into alignment for piercing said cloth;

0. a first anchor (4) having an elongated slit opening adapted toreceive a rib, said anchor being connected at one anchor end to theother end of said neck; and,

d. a second anchor in the shape of a second transverse rod shorter thansaid first transverse rod connected at about its center to the secondanchor end.

1. A fastener for attaching cloth to the rib of an umbrella comprising:a. a neck; b. a first transverse rod (2) with at least one pointed end,integrally connected to one end of said neck, said first transverse rodbeing twistable substantially into alignment for piercing said cloth; c.a first anchor (4) having an elongated slit opening adapted to receive arib, said anchor being connected at one anchor end to the other end ofsaid neck; and, d. a second anchor in the shape of a second transverserod shorter than said first transverse rod connected at about its centerto the second anchor end.